by S L Shelton
His finger hovered over the buttons, and he looked up nervously at Loeff.
“Answer it,” she said.
He breathed in deeply through his nose and then hit the button. “Captain Gärtner,” he answered crisply, sound very commanding.
Loeff chewed on her bottom lip and didn’t notice, until Klug looked at her, that her foot was rapidly tapping the linoleum floor.
“Yes, but—” the captain said.
“I understand, but—”
“Yes, of course,” he replied to the person at the other end. “We’ll be at your disposal.”
When he hung up the phone, he looked nervously at Loeff. “You are to return to your office and wait for the arrival of Interpol,” he said.
“Interpol?” Loeff asked.
“Well, yes…that’s who you called, isn’t it?”
She shook her head as if shaking out a bad thought. “Of course,” she replied numbly. “Yes.”
“I am supposed to put my resources at their disposal when they arrive,” he continued.
“Did they say how long they would be?”
“No,” he said firmly before opening a drawer in his desk and extracting a folder on protocols. “That’s all he said… You will wait for their arrival and I must cooperate.”
The look on the captain’s face relayed nothing except resolve. He was now very clearly an instrument of Interpol.
“Thank you,” she said before looking, embarrassed, at Klug and turning out of the office.
She returned to her own office, pulled a chair into the middle of the floor, and sat, unable to bring herself to touch anything or even contemplate where things had gone wrong.
This is very, very bad, she thought as she continued to chew her bottom lip until it was chapped and sore. Within two hours, there was a call from the security desk. She rode down in the elevator, grateful that she would be in the presence of others when she met whoever was arriving.
When she arrived downstairs and turned the corner, she felt her heart seize in her chest. A man who was at least seven feet tall was standing at the security desk. She had served Combine long enough to guess that the giant was Harbinger.
He hasn’t seen you yet, she thought. It’s not too late to run.
Behind him, a group of eight men stood bored, carrying assorted equipment and satchels. She stood, frozen in indecision, as she watched the men move equipment into the lobby.
“Frau Loeff?” the big man asked with a smile, snapping her attention forward.
Her body trembled from fright at the sight and sound of this man, but she nodded in affirmation.
“I’m sorry for the delay,” he said speaking alternately to Frau Loeff and Captain Gärtner, who had come to the desk. “I’m Special Agent Jones with the Interpol Financial Crimes Division. Are you the one who reported a possible breach?”
“Y…yes,” she stammered as she approached. “I am.”
The big man turned to the captain. “I’m sure we can count on your complete cooperation. We’ll need to access your security systems.”
The supervisor raised his hands in acquiescence before handing the giant a clipboard with forms. “Please sign here and all of my resources will be at your disposal.”
The giant took the captain’s pen, making it nearly vanish within his enormous hand. After scratching out an illegible scribble, he turned to the men behind him and pointed to one of them.
“Access the servers and see if there are any digital fingerprints or latent file bits we might collect,” he said. He then turned to another. “Interview—see if we’re already acquainted with the responsible party.”
The men nodded and began to go about their tasks.
“Two of you stay behind and assist, the rest of you come with me,” he said. The depth and command in the giant’s voice made Loeff’s knees tremble.
They allowed Loeff to enter the elevator first and then crowded in front of her. When it began to move, she heard creaking in the shaft above her that she had never heard before and began to fear the small box would snap the cables, sending her, the giant, and his men to their deaths. It seemed to take much longer to reach the fourth floor than usual.
The men stepped off the elevator and allowed Loeff to lead the way to her office. She let them in and stood to the side as they began to busy themselves, unpacking equipment and examining the office.
“Did you meet him?” the giant asked as she tried to tuck herself into a corner.
“I’m sorry?” Loeff said.
“Captain Gärtner said there was an American,” the giant said. “Did you meet him?”
She shook her head. “No, no,” she replied but then she stiffened. “Yes…maybe. I’m not sure.”
“Elaborate,” the mountain of a man rumbled quietly as if he were a dormant volcano, murmuring in prelude to eruption.
“I passed a man coming out of the elevator,” Loeff said in nearly a whisper. “He—”
“Speak up,” the giant said with an impatient spike of threat in his tone.
“I passed a man in the elevator,” she said more loudly. “A man down the hall said he was an American.”
“Down the hall?” the large man asked.
“Yes, Herr Moffit,” she said. “He has an accounting firm at the other end of the hallway.”
“I’d like to speak with him if I may.” It wasn’t a request, even though it was presented as one.
She got up immediately and walked to Herr Moffit’s office, returning a few moments later with him following behind her. Moffit froze upon seeing the giant.
“Come in,” the big man said with a smile, but the tremor it set off in Loeff’s gut was mirrored by Moffit’s suddenly sweaty brow and slouched shoulders, looking as if he were trying to fold in on himself in order to disappear.
Moffit was instructed to sit in a chair by a sweeping gesture from the giant’s arm.
“Yesterday,” the giant began, “you—”
“If I might… Who are you?” Moffit asked after a nervous swallow, his Adam’s apple bouncing twice, suggesting he didn’t have enough saliva left in his mouth to accomplish the action on the first try.
The giant drew himself up, rising from the surface of the outer office reception desk. The wood groaned as if relieved the crushing weight had been removed.
“I’m Special Agent Johnson with the Interpol Financial Crimes Division,” the giant replied with a thinly disguised ripple of anger.
Loeff took in a sharp breath. He had said his name was Jones before. He is Harbinger…I know it.
“Now,” the giant said after glancing at Loeff. “Tell me about this American.”
“We rode down in the elevator together,” Moffit replied, blinking rapidly and drawing away as far as the chair would allow. “He said he was from Conekt-cut. He said he was here on business. I had seen Frau Loeff go into her office with him, but then she acted as if she didn’t know him. He winked at me so I assumed…”
He looked at Loeff. “Forgive me… I assumed it was a personal liaison.”
“You saw him go into this office with Frau Loeff?” the giant asked.
He nodded.
“That’s ridiculous,” she protested. “The first I ever saw of him was when the two of you were leaving the elevator.”
Herr Moffit was about to respond, but the big man put his hand in the air, silencing them both. He leaned back toward Moffit.
“Are you certain it was Frau Loeff who you saw?” he asked. “If, for instance, someone was dressed similarly to Frau Loeff... ”
“Now that you mention it, I didn’t see her face; she put her hand up to wave without looking. Also, I’m not positive, but it is possible the woman had curly hair…though up in a bun as Frau Loeff wears hers.”
“I see,” he said. “And do you remember what time this was?”
“Approximately eleven forty-five yesterday morning,” he replied.
“Thank you, Herr Moffit. I don’t think I have to convey the seriousness of
this investigation. It would be in everyone’s best interest, including yours, if you spoke of it to no one.” The big man leaned forward as he spoke.
The threat in his tone was clear. Moffit looked as if he were about to pee himself as he rose and left without another word.
Harbinger turned to the techs. “Anything?”
“Yes. A very sophisticated infiltration algorithm. It covers its tracks completely. If we didn’t have backups to verify against, I doubt I could have even detected it unless I were monitoring Internet access for hours…slow encrypted feed through multiple collapsible proxies. Even then it would appear to be updates,” the tech responded. “There’s no way to trace it.”
“Who could have set this up?” the big man asked.
The tech shrugged. “NSA? Maybe a handful of other agencies throughout the world. The sophistication of the exploit usage reads like hacker code. But the discipline required to set up the proxies and the optimized structure of the code reeks of a government agency.”
“Is there a way to find where the data is going or who wrote the program?” the big man asked.
The tech shook his head. “It’s quite elegant,” he said and then paused. “But…if we leave the connection up, we could hide a Trojan in the download. A pingback would be all we needed.”
“Can we stop them from pulling the data?” the barrel-deep voice asked, violence at the edge of each word.
“If I try to alter the program parameters or start removing data, the program will most likely collapse in on itself,” the tech replied. “And there’s no way in hell we’ll be able to follow the trail if that happens. The proxy chain is far too delicate. I almost tripped the collapse routine twice already.”
The giant drew up to his full height and inhaled deeply through his nose as he rubbed the side of his face with a massive hand.
“Are you certain you can get a pingback if you insert the Trojan into the upload?” he asked.
The tech shook his head again. “I can’t guarantee it. I can’t see what’s downstream,” he replied. “But I can promise we will lose the trail if we stop the data from loading.”
The giant stared at the computer a moment longer, looking as if he wanted to jump through and strangle the person at the other end of the connection. “Do it,” he said quietly after several beats before pivoting his massive frame toward Loeff.
“That data is highly sensitive and should not—” Loeff began indignantly.
“I know what the data is,” the big man said casually as he pulled a photo from his breast pocket. “At this point, we don’t know how much damage has been done, but we do know we need to find the source… Is this the American you saw?”
Loeff slowly purposefully lifted the reading glasses hanging from a chain around her neck and put them on. She tilted her head up and looked at the photo through the half frames. “Yes,” she stated firmly, doing her best to sound confident and professional, but the quaver in her voice betrayed her.
Harbinger nodded thoughtfully. “Do you know who I am?”
She shook her head nervously.
“I think you do,” he said and then squatted down in front of her. “It’s alright. This isn’t your fault. You can be honest.”
She stared at him for several long seconds, her mouth dry with fear. “Harbinger,” she whispered with a stiff nod.
“That’s right,” he replied with a grim smile. “I’m certain you've seen my payments come through this office many times.”
She nodded hesitantly again.
“A lot of resources come through this office, do they not?” he asked.
She stared at him blankly.
“And you are the only one who knows them all,” he said. It was a statement, not a question.
“I assure you, I can replicate all safety and privacy measures and have everything moved in as little as a week,” she said to him as sudden panic forced her mind to desperately weave solutions.
Harbinger shook his head. “We are going to find the source of the intrusion and deal with it,” he said. “As I’ve already stated, you are not to blame for this.”
“I…I trie—”
“Shhh,” Harbinger shushed and leaned close to her.
She noticed, through her fear, something odd about his eyes. The orange-tinged ring that circled the green seemed to ripple as flecks of red—blood—began to dot the outside whites.
“Do you have other means of transferring funds?” Harbinger asked with a smile that made her shiver.
She nodded so slightly that she barely felt the movement herself. He smiled and stood. “You are familiar with my accounts?” he asked.
Her eyes grew wide. She began to feel she shouldn’t have called the number. A trap was closing on her, and she had no way of extracting herself from it. Mentally, emotionally, she went limp.
“Yes,” she said with calm. “You have twenty-seven various accounts that have been deposited to since I’ve taken over the funds.”
He nodded. “And how many accounts do you have access to that aren’t represented on that computer?” he asked, drawing his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of her desktop.
She reached into her briefcase that had been sitting awkwardly in her lap and withdrew her smartphone.
“Half,” she replied. “Roughly.”
“Very good,” Harbinger said, thinly veiling the lust in his eyes with a tone of relief. “I need you to make several transfers before the network collapses.”
In her head, she screamed, No! Only an order from the Sprytes or Combine can release funds. But the rest of her had already submitted to the fearsome creature in front of her.
She began tapping entries on her phone.
“Which accounts are to be withdrawn from and which are to be added to?” she asked.
“Draw from the twenty largest accounts and spread the total over my…what did you say? Twenty-seven?” he asked. “Spread evenly over my twenty-seven accounts.”
She nodded without hesitation, bringing a subtle smile to the corners of Harbinger’s eyes.
“In what amount?” she asked.
“One hundred million,” he said plainly with no emotion. “Euros.”
She looked up from her phone. “One hundred?”
He leaned closer to her. “Yes,” he replied softly. “Why? Are there insufficient funds to complete the transaction?”
“No,” she replied, shaking her head sharply. “The twenty largest accounts hold considerably more than that.”
“Good,” he said. “Don’t use electronic transfers. Use the courier services.”
She nodded and began her work, tapping out orders of transfer that would be executed by various courier services. “But don’t send any requests to Prosé Service Exécutifs,” he said as if an afterthought. “They are otherwise engaged.”
She nodded without looking up from her work. Harbinger turned and focused his attention on the tech who was working on her computer, looking over his shoulder at Loeff only once.
When she’d completed the transfer orders several minutes later, she placed the phone back into her briefcase and looked up. “The orders are complete,” she said calmly, feeling as if the glimmer of hope had been broadened with her cooperation. “Transfers should begin immediately. Whatever isn’t deposited today will be completed in the morning.”
“Excellent,” Harbinger said. “Thank you very much for your cooperation in this matter—it’s so much easier when we cut out the middle man.”
“What am I to do now tha—” Loeff began with a cool, even tone.
Harbinger held his hand up, stopping her mid-sentence, and then turned to his tech. “Are you nearly done?” he asked.
The tech nodded. “It looks like the virus is doing a sector-by-sector copy,” he replied. “I’m pretty sure it has a compare-and-complete write back, but the Trojan is inserted. It should get picked up in the next few hours.”
Harbinger nodded. “Leave the computer running and hide your access to it,�
�� the big man said. “The rest of you, finish boxing up the contents of the office and take them out of here.”
He turned to Loeff. “You will come with me, Frau,” he said. His tone sounded so gentle, yet everything about this man screamed violence.
Loeff tried to stand, but her knees suddenly refused to cooperate. She tipped to the side and was caught by the giant.
“Are you alright?” Harbinger asked with what sounded like genuine concern.
She nodded rapidly. “This has just been very overwhelming,” she said in a quiet voice.
“I understand completely,” he replied. “The whole nasty business will be behind us soon.”
Despite the comfort that was present in the words, her whole body was poised to flee. Harbinger held her arm loosely as he guided her out of the office and then down the hall to the elevator.
“Do you think Herr Spryte will continue to utilize my services?” she asked in almost a girlish shy whisper.
“I have no doubt of it.” Harbinger replied without looking at her. “Your contributions are highly valued.”
The elevator bounced to a groaning halt at the first floor and the doors slid aside. Again, Loeff debated fleeing from the giant. But as he slipped his entire hand around her arm, that thought faded, along with the desperation behind the desire.
They walked past the reception station, and he caught the attention of several of his men. With a discreet sweeping motion, Harbinger raised his hand to his face before flattening it and spreading his fingers wide. Two of the men nodded.
Without a word, one of the men fell in step behind him and Loeff, following them out of the building. As Harbinger opened the back door of a Rover for Loeff, she paused and looked at him. “What was the signal you gave?”
He smiled and gestured for her to get in. “I was instructing them to remove any evidence of our presence there,” he replied as he got in and closed the door.
The driver merged the Rover into traffic.
“I will have to find new offices and prepare the accounts for transfer once you have isolated the guilty parties,” Loeff said after a few quiet moments, her mind racing to find a reason why she was indispensable.